


The Butcher (The Baker, The Candlestick Maker)

by lamarina



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: (a very bad one), Halloween, Haunted Houses, M/M, sunggyu the scaredy cat, sungyeol the comic relief (?), woogyuly week 4, woohyun the actor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 00:31:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12544780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamarina/pseuds/lamarina
Summary: For week 4 ofwoogyuly! The theme is "Halloween." I'm not good at horror so I went for something lighthearted. I hope you like it!





	The Butcher (The Baker, The Candlestick Maker)

**Author's Note:**

> For week 4 of [woogyuly](https://twitter.com/woogyuly)! The theme is "Halloween." I'm not good at horror so I went for something lighthearted. I hope you like it!

As a general rule, Sunggyu avoided scary things. “Scary things” is a wide category that included many things, such as hospitals, the ocean, the Shinkansen bullet trains in Japan, middle schoolers, and, when fall rolled around, everything spooky, haunted, and/or creepy.

So in mid-October, when Sunggyu’s friend, coworker, and constant thorn in his side, Sungyeol, presents him with tickets to the newest and supposedly scariest haunted house in downtown, Sunggyu vehemently rejects him.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, that is not happening,” Sunggyu says, pushing the tickets across the table back to Sungyeol. “Not a chance in hell.”

“Exactly! It’s October, Sunggyu. Get into the holiday spirit. You’re too young to be this bitter.” Sungyeol grins at Sunggyu. “And too old to be afraid of haunted houses.”

“Oh, screw you. Doesn't that just make us too old to go to one?”

“People of all ages can enjoy haunted houses, ‘Gyu. Come on, don't be a killjoy for once in your life! It’ll do your old ticker some good to get a little scare in. Get your blood flowing.” Sungyeol slides one of the tickets back to Sunggyu. “It's this Friday. You're coming. I will pick you up at your place at 8 PM. Starts at 8:30. Don't wuss out on me.”

And with that, Sungyeol leaves.

+

True to his word, Sungyeol arrives at Sunggyu’s apartment at 8 o’clock Friday night. Sunggyu, in anticipation of the night’s events, has been steadfastly avoiding the television and Internet, for fear of running across anything even vaguely frightening or haunting. Instead, he’s been sitting on the couch reading manhwa he borrowed from Myungsoo. He would never admit it, but he loves cheesy romance stories. They are the very antithesis of the scary things he so despised.

Sungyeol, true to form, walks right into Sunggyu’s apartment without knocking.

“You know, you really should lock your door,” Sungyeol says. “For someone so fearful, you sure don’t seem to take any precautions about protecting yourself. What if I were a murderer?”

“I’d rather you were a murderer.” Sunggyu sets the manhwa down on his coffee table and sighs. “Can we just go and get this over with, please?”

“Why aren’t you excited! This is going to be fun.” Sungyeol smiles.

“Let’s just go.”

+

The outside of the haunted house looks rather dilapidated, unassuming, and almost as if it had been set on fire once. But the run-down nature of the building only adds to the haunted nature of it. There are a few actors wandering around outside, in full costume, makeup, and character.

Sunggyu shivers. When a zombie comes up to him and places their hand on his shoulder, he screams, and Sungyeol laughs. Sungyeol raises his hand to high five the zombie, who only groans and walks away, ever the professional.

Sungyeol grabs Sunggyu and pushes him forward, because after the zombie shoulder incident, Sunggyu froze in place. “Come on, ‘Gyu, I’m not letting these tickets go to waste~”

“I fucking hate this already, Sungyeol. What are you going to do if I pass out? Then what?” Sunggyu inquires as Sungyeol shoves him by the shoulders.

“I’ll finish the house and come back for you. You’re being so dramatic! Look, here’s the line. Here’s your ticket. And don’t drop it or try to pull any funny stuff with it.” Sungyeol passes Sunggyu the bright orange ticket and smiles. He starts bouncing on the balls of his feet and whistling.

“Could you...please. Please don’t do that,” Sunggyu says. “I’m already anxious enough.”

Sungyeol stills and looks down at Sunggyu. “How did you make it to this age being so fearful in life? Haven’t you ever wanted to live a little?”

“I’m content with how my life is, thanks. Minimal fright, minimal risk, minimal…”

“Minimal excitement,” Sungyeol finishes.

“A haunted house isn’t exactly living large,” Sunggyu quips.

“But it’s the first step! Today...a haunted house. Tomorrow...bungee jumping?” Sungyeol grins as Sunggyu winces.

The line keeps moving and soon they’re inside. It’s nearing 8:30 and almost time to go in. A woman covered in fake blood and open wounds collects their tickets. Sunggyu goes white as a sheet.

“This is nothing,” Sungyeol whispers. “If you want to hold my hand, you totally can.”

“Shut up,” Sunggyu hisses back.

They continue inside and wait to be ushered into the entrance of the actual “house.” The decorations are minimal. No gaudy or campy skeletons, pumpkins, ghosts, or anything. Just plain, with a few gauzy spiderwebs. It just adds to the authenticity and makes Sunggyu even more afraid that whatever is inside is terrifying.

Wordlessly, another zombie leads the pair inside. Sunggyu inhales sharply, and Sungyeol grins.

The two creep in quietly, the only ones in the “tunnel” hallway, as the house lets in either pairs or small groups in at a time. Blood drips down from the walls and low, whistling tones are playing. As they approach the first room of the house, Sunggyu grabs onto Sungyeol’s arm, who rolls his eyes.

“Relax. It’s just the first bit. It’s not going to be that…” Sungyeol starts to say, but is interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. Sunggyu jumps nearly 5 feet in the air and clutches Sungyeol harder. They keep moving, though, and follow the sounds of metallic clanking and buzzing noises.

They come to a scene of a medical examination room, listening to the sounds of tortured screams. Sunggyu looks on in horror. Someone in a white lab coat is leaned over an examination bed. The person is strapped down by their wrists and ankles, screaming and howling in agony. The doctor turns around and grins at the duo. His teeth are black and the front of his uniform is stained red.

He leaves the table and goes up to the bars that separate the room from the hall and held up his tools of torture, which were whirring and buzzing and making all sorts of other threatening and terrifying noises. Sunggyu, horrified, screams and flees the room, leaving Sungyeol behind to deal with Dr. Terror.

Sungyeol gives one last look at the torture scene and then leaves to find Sunggyu.

He finds him cowering in the hallway away from any rooms, covering his ears. Sungyeol rolls his eyes. “Get up. I think this place was overhyped. That wasn’t even that scary. Let’s just get this over with and watch a horror movie at my place.”

A gaggle of teenage girls passes Sunggyu and Sungyeol, laughing quietly, before shrieking as they continue through the hall.

+

The final room in the house seems to be a butcher shop. Featuring human “meat,” of course.

Grotesque chopping sounds reverberate throughout the room. Dull thuds against a big metal table echo and Sunggyu wrinkles his nose. A man stands facing away from Sunggyu and Sungyeol, who looks on with a morbid curiosity.

“Wouldn’t it be fucked up if they were using real human body parts? You think that’s someone’s real legs and arms strung up on the wall? Or the fingers on the floor?” Sungyeol leans down and whispers to Sunggyu, who nearly retches.

Becoming aware of their presence, the man turns around to look at the pair. His white apron is covered in blood, gore, and other viscera. It’s fake, but it makes Sunggyu feel sick.

Unlike the previous actors, however, he isn’t...totally awful looking. He has a nice face with distinctive features. When he grins at Sunggyu, he notices a snaggletooth at the corner of his mouth, and Sunggyu’s heart swoops a bit.

Sungyeol rolls his eyes again and grabs Sunggyu by the arm. “Come on, you useless gay,” Sungyeol says, tugging on his sleeve. “Flirt with the murderous butcher later! I want to leave.”

“Okay, okay.” Sunggyu lets himself be tugged out of the house and back into the lobby.

Once through with the exhibit, Sungyeol sighs. “That was not nearly as scary as I was expecting. I’ve seen scarier things on late-night television.”

“It scared me.” Sunggyu scratches his head. “But that last guy…”

“Oh, my God, Sunggyu. You have a crush on the cannibalistic butcher.”

“You don’t know if he’s a cannibal! All that we know is that he kills people. Or, well, gets paid to pretend he does.”

Sungyeol considers this and taps his finger to his chin. “If we wait a bit, I think the actors get a break and we could meet him.”

“Hmmmm…” Sunggyu feigns disinterest. But he grins. “Okay. But only because he has a really cute tooth.”

+

Sungyeol, bored, sits while Sunggyu waits to meet the butcher.

“I at least want to get his name,” Sunggyu says to a disinterested Sungyeol.

As some of the other actors file out of the house—the killer doctor, some mental institution patients, several clowns and many other creatures of horror—Sunggyu begins to wonder if the butcher will show up. However, eventually, while the actors chat with a few other visitors that have stuck around, the butcher and his victims wander out.

“Well there he is. Go say hello.” Sungyeol yawns.

Sunggyu smiles and calmly walks over to the butcher, who is swinging his prop knife around in a rather show offy, boisterous way. He laughs with his bloodied victims and chats with some of the other characters.

When he’s not talking, Sunggyu waves to try and get his attention. Sungyeol nearly dies on the spot of embarrassment. Sunggyu is hopelessly awkward.

“Hello,” Sunggyu says.

The butcher smiles. “Hi there. Did you enjoy the house?”

“Um. I nearly had a heart attack at every moment, so, I guess so.”

“Your friend over there seems thrilled.” He gestures to Sungyeol.

“He...has very high expectations of horror. I...do not.” Sunggyu rubs the back of his neck.

The other man laughs. “Well, that’s too bad about your friend. But I’m glad you two gave us a shot. It’s...our first year and we really tried to hype it up. We’re still working on some things. Maybe you could offer us some feedback?”

“How so?” Sunggyu’s trying not to stare at his exposed forearms. They are very nice. His white shirt is rolled up to his elbows.

“Maybe we could...hang out sometime. And chat. About haunted houses. I’m Woohyun.”

“Haunted houses. Love them. I’m Sunggyu.”

Woohyun offers Sunggyu a hand. Sunggyu smirks. Instead of taking Woohyun’s hand, Sunggyu hands him his phone. Intrigued, Woohyun raises an eyebrow.

“That’s my phone. Your number.” Sunggyu smiles.

Woohyun laughs. “That was smooth. Okay.” Woohyun types his number into Sunggyu’s contacts. “Just don’t forget who I am, alright?”

Sunggyu looks down at the phone. In lieu of his name, Woohyun had typed “The Butcher.” Sunggyu laughs.

“I don’t think that’s likely.”

+

As they’re leaving, Sungyeol whistles. “You surprised me back there.”

“What?”

“You actually managed to get the butcher’s number.”

“His name is Woohyun.”

“Just don’t let him use that knife on you.”

“It was a prop.”


End file.
